Rotarian Anne Dale and myself headed off to Uganda on June 24th to participate in our Club’s Water is Life, Sanitation is Health Global Grant Project. John Ridge approached me in March after he had read my report on doing Days for Girls training in Cambodia. We agreed that we could help accomplish the project’s objectives related to Menstrual Health Management (MHM) training and the creation and distribution of reusable/washable sanitary pads under the Days for Girls banner.Submitted by Manon Mitchell
Days for Girls International (DfG) is dedicated to creating a more free, dignified, and educated world, through providing lasting access to feminine hygiene solutions and health education. Thus far, Days for Girls has reached over 640,000 women and girls. There are DfG chapters composed of volunteers who make DfG kits that are distributed around the world.
Once in Kampala, we visited the Days for Girls center and conducted a bit of quality control activities to help the women who work there be more efficient and produce a better quality product.
We visited a couple of Rotary Clubs in Kampala (there are 37), and did attend the Rotary Club of Kampala where we met Sam Owori (RI President Elect) and got a chance to chat with him. We were quite shocked and saddened to learn of his passing about 2 weeks later.
On July 1st, we took an interesting 4 hour drive and crossed the equator to the project site in the town of Kalisizo.
Twenty participants were expertly selected and they included ten women who were Health Inspectors, our translator who was a midwife, and another ten women who were tailors (sewers). I facilitated during the first week and took our participants through a customized Train the Trainer course designed for facilitators in the developing world, as well as the DfG Ambassador of Women’s Health course. During the second week, the sewers received expert training from Anne on how to make Days for Girls kits, and they also discussed how they could work together as a micro enterprise, covering topics such as quality control. I continued more training with the Health Inspectors and we also conducted distributions of the kits in 10 different schools.
The training Anne and I conducted was held in a newly renovated building as part of this Global Grant. Rain water catchment systems, bio sand filters and pit latrines were installed in the ten schools we visited. What a difference this has made for these remote communities. In one case, the community itself doubled in population because clean water was now available at the school!
Each day offered many rewards most of which were watching the participants grow and learn; after the first week of training all of them were confident in talking about MHM and the Days for Girls product.
Of course there were challenges which meant translating. We called this “foreign exchange”. It nearly doubled the time it took to work through the required materials. Other challenges meant adapting to local cultural customs such as starting at 9:00 am but then having a half hour break at 11:00 am for breakfast! This was followed by 1 hour lunch break at 1:00 pm! Speaking of lunch, it was interestingly catered and featured local foods; matoke (boiled/steamed starchy green banana mush) was always on the menu with its accompanying ground nut (peanut) sauce and more root vegetables (Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin). Lovers of avocado would be delighted as in Uganda they are the size of a large squash and are so delicious!Having been to Cambodia and Nepal many times, I was expecting the weather to be much warmer. As I watched Calgary temperatures soar over 30C, I was thankful to be in a breezy green area with temps hovering in between 23C and 28C. What a pleasure!
Each day Francis from RC Kalisizo would drive us over the extremely bumping dirt roads to the school and then back to our little retreat at the Nabisere hotel for dinner where we explored the different taste of the chef’s attempt at cooking North American foods. Tilapia, fresh from Lake Victoria, was available on occasion and was quite a delight, although Anne had to rely on Manon’s fish mongering expertise to remove the head from the body! The chicken was also very fresh as we observed the chef carrying a couple by the feet, the unfortunate things still alive and squawking noisily, on their way to the kitchen!
Of course there were visits to other nearby Rotary clubs and at that time of the year there were several President Installation celebratory meetings. We attended one in Kyotera and were disappointed that we didn’t bring our cash as there was an interesting live auction as a club fundraiser. We were prepared for the meeting at the Rotary Club of Lukaya and participated in their auction fundraiser. What did we get? A goat, what else? We politely declined the offer to have a taste before we left!
We participated in the inauguration of the Manyama school and transfer of the facility from the RC Kalisizo to the community. In attendance were many community dignitaries and the under secretary of the Minister of Health as well as the Minister of Micro Finance. The RC Kalisizo took people on a tour of the school just up the hill to show them the newly constructed pit latrines, rain water catchment system, bio sand filters and new school roofs. People were then offered a tour of the training facility we had used over the last 2 weeks and it was wonderful to see the sewers engage with the community by showing off their kits and talking to them about how the kit worked and why it was important to provide MHM solutions to girls so they do not miss school and that every starts demystifying this thing we call menstruation.I returned to Calgary on July 19th after the most frustrating and anxiety provoking journey from Kampala to the Entebe airport - Deerfoot Trail traffic at its worse is nothing in comparison to Kampala traffic! Anne stayed in Uganda for another month as she is working on a Days for Girls Internship.
It was an honour and a pleasure to work with RC Kalisizo and the women of that area.
I am extremely grateful to my club, RC Calgary and our World Community Service committee for providing the opportunity to be a Rotarian of action, to be in service to others and in the process enrich my own life. I look forward to other opportunities Rotary offers.